Christ Lutheran Church

We invite you and your family to a SLEDDING PARTY for youth 2nd through 12th grades. Join us this Sunday, January 24 from 2 to 4 p.m. behind the church. Hot chocolate, coffee, and snacks will be provided in the pavilion! This event is for all our youth groups 2nd through 5th graders and 6th through 12th graders parents are welcome to stay, but youth may come on their own. Dress for the weather, bring your sleds, and a friend! There will also be a snowman building contest with prizes. Sign up via email [email protected] or call the church office 371-2470.

Today we'll read just one verse from the story of the Fall. One scholar writes: With the possible exception of John 3:16, no verse in the Bible is more crucial & definitive than Genesis 3:15. This verse is crucial in four ways. First, it creates the expectation of a Redeemer. Martin Luther, identifying the offspring of the woman as Jesus, writes: This is a revelation of the depths of God’s goodness! He will redeem creation! Second, it establishes the costly way in... which God will redeem His people from their sin with blood. In the words of an early Christian preacher: It was on Golgotha that the old serpent gave the Savior the deadly bite in his heel, which went quite through his foot, fastening it to the cross with iron nails. Third, the verse establishes a larger explanation for the brokenness of the world: Satan is at work. Certainly, Adam and Eve bear responsibility for their actions, but their actions are entwined with the serpent’s evil. Finally, this verse promises the victory of God’s kingdom over the kingdom of darkness! Biblical scholar Matthew Henry writes: Here was drawn the gospel day: no sooner was the wound given, then the remedy was provided and revealed. The Bible is clear from the very beginning, we are a people of hope despite the realities of this broken world. Peace+, Pastor Amy Today’s verse: Genesis 3:15 The Lord God continued: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. See more

This part of the story is just masterfully told. God is depicted with very human characteristics and seems to come seeking time with the man and the woman. The suspense builds when God calls out, Where are you? When the man replies, God acts first as a prosecuting attorney questioning witnesses. The man and then the woman respond with blame. Blame and shame come into the world through disobedience; and humanity fell out of its perfect relationship with God. Then God b...ecomes the judge, cursing the serpent. He is the only character in the story who God curses. Peace+, Pastor Amy Today’s verses: Genesis 3:8-14 8They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, Where are you? 10He said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11He said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? 12The man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate. 13Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done? The woman said, The serpent tricked me, and I ate. 14The Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. See more

Skip to Genesis 3, the story of the fall. First, don’t make the age-old mistake today of blaming the fall on the woman. This is a story of human disobedience and rebellion against God, not a story of the woman who alone was tempted and who alone was responsible for sin entering into the world. A careful reading makes it quite obvious that the man was there all along and simply fails to speak up. And further, Genesis 3 is not so much about explaining the origin of sin as it... is about describing the reality of what it is to be human and our mysterious human tendencies continually to rebel against God, to resist the gracious boundaries and limitations that God places around us for our own good, and to desire to be like God rather than thankful creatures of God. Peace+, Pastor Amy Today’s verses: Genesis 3:1-7 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’? 2The woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’ 4But the serpent said to the woman, You will not die; 5for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. 6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 7Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. See more

Yesterday’s devo got a question about infant baptism. Thought everyone might appreciate my thoughts on that topic. First, our baptism is different than Jesus’. At that time, there was no such thing as Christian baptism. Jesus was baptized with the baptism of John, a baptism of repentance, not because He sinned but to identify Himself with sinful humanity. At His baptism God also spoke and the Holy Spirit empowered Him and launched Him into ministry. Christian baptism, ...the baptism with which we are baptized, is not a baptism of repentance but rather a baptism with the Holy Spirit. Baptism is all God’s doing and not our own. Baptism brings us into God’s family, the church. Baptism gifts us with the Holy Spirt and forgiveness, life and salvation. The church baptizes in response to Jesus’ command: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, The Bible gives no instruction about the age at which to baptize. The church has long baptized infants because it is never too early for us sinful humans to receive the gift of God’s grace! Click this link for a bit more about the Lutheran perspective on infant baptism. https://www.livinglutheran.org/2017/01/why-infant-baptism/ See more